Oct 12 Mirror Mirror

When we first toured our house, the first room you walked into was a super crowded living room that was connected to a dining room that opened to the kitchen. We knew our furniture would never fit in this weird long and narrow shared space. So we decided to flip the two rooms and have the dining room be on the side with the fireplace (when you first walk in) and then the living room would be off of the kitchen. I'm sure it sounds weird, but it just made more sense for us. We really didn't like the idea of walking straight into the living room. We felt like the dining room allowed for a bit of a pause.

I have since created a small entry space for when you first walk in which acts as a sort of touch down area. It has a small shelf with various bowls for keys, leashes, change, etc. I knew that I wanted to add a mirror to the wall above the shelf, but the space was very tall and narrow, which made finding just the right mirror almost impossible. I remembered this image I had saved in my inspiration folder back in 2010, and kept my eyes peeled for a mirror with similar proportions.

We live a couple blocks away from a street lined with several thrift/antique shops. I try to scope them out once a month or so because honestly they don’t turnover their inventory that fast, and all the new things are set outside on the street so I can just oogle it all as I drive home everyday (while almost rear-ending the person in front of me because. priorities.). When my mom was in town visiting, we stumbled upon the perfect mirror and it was only $18!

The "wood" was actually this weird wood-look plastic, but I didn't really care because I had big plans to paint it. I hated that I found the mirror at this particular shop because I really dislike how manipulative the shop owner is. I'm all about wheeling and dealing when it comes to vintage finds, but this guy is just the worst. He'll do the whole "you better buy it now because I've had several people say they are coming back for it" every. single. time. Also, everything is usually marked up ridiculously high and then "on sale" and the sale price is what it should have cost to begin with. That kind of thing. When we went to track down our BFF shop owner, he informed us (again) that “all prices are negotiable” which I always think.. yay! haggling! In the past when I’d see a big piece (like a dresser or pair of chairs or something) that was marked $300 he’d take it down to $175 if I “get it right now” (which.. when else would I get it?), so I had high hopes for my (already super cheap) mirror. So after he dug it out of it’s super buried corner, he said “I’ll give you a good deal on this! how about 17.50!!”What. Whatever, I bought it anyway because I really liked it and I knew it would work perfectly in our entry. This guy.

Even though the frame was just plastic, the mirror was about 50lb, so I didn’t really want to take it apart to paint it. Instead I just covered the mirror part with paper and taped it off.

I wanted it to be sort of a moody color because I had big plans for the shelf below it, which Derek made in high school shop. How cute is that? So I ended up going with a navy-ish color by Valspar in a satin finish because let's face it, the mirror is shiny enough. I primed the frame first with my trusty plastic primer and then sprayed on two coats of the navy. Luckily it dried a lot darker than the lid.. I was a little nervous at first that it wouldn’t be “navy” enough.

Afterward I removed all of the paper and tape and scraped off any excess paint from the mirror with a razor blade.

I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, and I love the little pop of color it adds to the space.